FALL 2008 progams

U.S. theatre series

Shifting Sands/New Plays by Betty Shamieh

Palestinian-American playwright Betty Shamieh’s works explore fraught, modern-day issues, often through a historical lens. The series will include readings of Betty Shamieh’s history plays Kingmakers and Territories, a post play discussion, and panel with renowned theatremakers about the politics of mainstream success for political and experimental American artists.

3:00 p.m. Kingmakers with Kathleen Chalfant, directed by John Gould Rubin. Kingmakers is inspired by the life of Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. Full of intrigue, humor, and sexual politics, Kingmakersis a tragicomedy of epic proportions.

4:30 p.m. Post-play discussion with members of the cast moderated by Egyptian theatre artist, translator and Arab theatre scholar Dalia Basiouny.

6:30 p.m. Territories, directed by Lisa Peterson. Territoriesis a story about the unnamed woman whose kidnapping led to the final battle that sparked the beginning of the end of the Crusades.

8:00 p.m. Interpreting the Zeitgeist: A panel discussion with renowned artists exploring their own trajectories and experiences with making a mark in American and international theatre, and the dynamics involved in marketing the work of counterculture or minority artists within the current culturel cli mate. Moderated by Betty Shamieh.

Betty Shamieh’s plays include The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre Fournos of Athens), Chocolate in Heat (The Tank), Roar (The New Group), and Territories (The Magic Theatre). Territories will premiere at the European Union’s Capital of Culture Festival in 2009. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, she is a Playwriting Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Nibras, founded in June 2001, is an Arab-American theatrecollective built upon a shared passion and united by a common heritage. Our mission is to create a network for Arab-American theatreartists to share their talent, experience and passion by staging imaginative and articulate productions that increase the positive visibility and creative expression of Arabs and Arab-Americans.

Co-presented by Nibras and Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!

The Talking Band: Flip Side and beyond

Join us for an evening with Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow of The Talking Band as they discuss their current production, Flip Side, a comedy of longing, misperceptions, and mismatches.

Flip Side is the product of an unconventional collaboration, inverting the traditional creative process by designing a set first and then writing the play inspired by the visual/physical environment. Hungarian-born designer Anna Kiraly produced set designs that were then used as inspiration for the text by playwright Ellen Maddow's and for the music by composer "Blue" Gene Tyranny.

The Talking Band creates a poetic-political theatre–political in that it reflects the condition of people in our time, and poetic because of the language, music and visual imagery. These elements are used to create richly textured works which seek to illuminate the extraordinary dimensions of ordinary life.

Paul Zimet is the Artistic Director of Talking Band. He has written Imminence, Party Time, Belize, The Parrot, Star Messengers, Bitterroot, Black Milk Quartet, New Cities,and two episodes of The Necklace. He received a Village Voice OBIE award for his direction of The Talking Band production of Painted Snake in a Painted Chair, and also three OBIE awards for his work with the Open Theater and the Winter Project, both directed by Joseph Chaikin.

The Theatre of Jean Claude van Itallie

Join the Segal Center andThe Soul of the American Actorfor a day-long symposium with readings, panels and screenings focusing on the work of New York playwright and director Jean-Claude van Itallie.

Scheduled afternoon screenings include Jean-Claude van Itallie in War, Sex and Dreams and Joseph Chaikin in Struck Dumb... . Invited participants include: Brian Murray, Laila Robins, Judith Malina, Lois Walden, Steve Gorn, Ruth Maleczech, Angelica Torn, Ronald Rand, Rosemary Quinn, Kim Mancuso, Peter Goldfarb, and the cast of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, including Court Dorsey, Kermit Dunkelberg, Susan Thompson, and John VanEps.

Scene from The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Photo courtesy of the artist

TeatroStageFest/ HOLA/ Produce! Workshop

Join us for a one-day workshop for non-conformist performers determined to take their vision from the page to the stage.Co-presented by The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, TeatroStageFest and the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), with support from the City University of New York and Instituto Cervantes. An official event of the 2008 NYC Latin American Cultural Week.

Produce! will feature a panel discussion with notable actors and writers who have seen their work produced On or Off-Broadway, and break-out groups that will provide instrumental tools to seeing one’s work produced: development, budgeting, fundraising, marketing, and more.

TeatroStageFest is an annual citywide festival that spotlights groundbreaking theatre productions from New York, Latin America, The Caribbean and Spain; concerts, comedy, children's and outdoor theater, artist panels, and a city wide playwriting competition for high school students. It is produced by the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, Inc. (LITF/NY) a non profit organization founded in 2005 and supported by the New York City Latin Media and Entertainment Commission, among other partners. LITF/NY also holds year-round programming seeking to empower theatre artists in New York, and collaborations with international theater companies and festivals. www.teatrostagefest.org

The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) is an arts service organiza tion founded in 1975 to expand the presence of Hispanic actors in both the Latino and mainstream entertainment and communications media by facilitat ing industry access to employing professional and emerging Hispanic actors. In expanding job opportunities for actors, HOLA strengthens and supports the available talent pool through its professional educational services and awards for excellence in theatre . Ultimately, HOLA strives for an accurate, informed and non-stereotyped portrayal of Hispanic culture, people and heritage in theatre, film, television, radio and commercials. www.hellohola.org

10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m., Saturday, November 8, 2008 Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!
Reservation required: info@teatrostagefest.org

ACTING TEACHERS OF AMERICA

Join the Segal Center and The Soul of the American Actor for an extraordinary one-day-symposium examining the craft of acting and actor training in the twentieth century and beyond, as taught by American master acting teachers, directors, and actors. Many of the finest American acting teachers, directors, and actors from across the country and New York City will come to the Segal Center and share their passion about the craft of acting, and their insights about the master teachers of the 20th century including Stella Adler, Herbert Berghof, Anne Bogart, Joseph Chaikin, Michael Chekhov, Harold Clurman, Uta Hagen, Alvina Kraus, Bobby Lewis, Sanford Meisner, Viola Spolin, and Lee Strasberg.

Some of today’s most influential actors, acting teachers, and directors will give introductions to the screenings and participate in the panel discussions.

Participating artists include: Gregory Abels, Ellen Adler, Karen Allen, Gary Austin, Harold Baldridge, Bud Beyer, Ron Burrus, Billy Crudup, Susan Grace Cohen, Andre De Shields, Olympia Dukakis, William Esper, Maggie Flanigan, Jack Garfein, Kathryn Gately, Lee Grant, Anne Jackson, Milton Katselas, Barbara MacKenzie-Wood, Eric Morris, Elizabeth Parrish, Austin Pendleton, Carol Fox Prescott, Christopher Roberts, Joanna Rotte, Sande Shurin, Robin Lynn Smith, Alice Spivak, Arthur Storch, John Strasberg, Penny Templeton, Eli Wallach, and Loyd Williamson.Discussions are inspired by the interviews from Acting Teachers of America: a Vital Tradition by Ronald Rand with photographs by Luigi Scorcia, published by Allworth Press.

Afternoon screenings will feature excerpts from acting classes by master teachers of the 20th century: Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen, and Anne Bogart. Followed by a special excerpted performance at 6:30 pm, from the internationally acclaimed play, LET IT BE ART! Harold Clurman’s Life of Passion, starring Ronald Rand as Harold Clurman, the “elder statesman of the American Theatre,” directed by Gregory Abels.

At 6:30 two panels will focus on the history and the future of American acting. At 9:00 an historic photo will be taken of all the “Acting Teachers of America” present in the room.

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ACTING TEACHERS, MODERATORS, PANELISTS

Stella Adler At the age of four she first appeared on stage in her father’s theatre, the great Yiddish actor, Jacob Adler. She studied with Constantin Stanislavsky, Maria Ouspenskaya, and Richard Bolaslavsky. A founding member of The Group Theatre, she appeared in the original Broadway productions of “Success Story,” “Awake and Sing,” and “Paradise Lost.” After her film debut in 1938, she became an associate producer at Metro Studios. In the early 40’s, Ms. Adler was head of the Acting Department at The New School under the noted director, Erwin Piscator. In 1949, she founded the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York City, which continues today, headed by her grandson, Tom Oppenheim. A member of the faculty of Yale Drama School, her notable books include “Acting,” and “On Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov.”

Uta Hagen made her Broadway debut in 1938 as Nina in the Lunts’ production of The Sea Gull. She played in twenty-two Broadway productions, including the legendary Othello with Paul Robeson and Jose Ferrer. In 1948 she re-invented Blanche DuBois for the national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire with Anthony Quinn, and then succeeded Jessica Tandy for the Broadway run the next year. In 1950 she won her first Tony award, the Drama Critics Award, and the Donaldson Award for her creation of Georgie Elgin in Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl. She starred in St. Joan and A Month in the Country, and created Martha in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, (Tony, Drama Critics Award, London Critics Award). Beginning in 1947, Ms. Hagen taught acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio. Together with her husband, Mr. Berghof, she trained generations of actors including Geraldine Page, Jason Robards, Matthew Broderick, and Lindsay Crouse. Her books, “Respect for Acting,” and “A Challenge for the Actor” grew out of decades of collaboration and exploration of the actor's craft. In 1981 she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and received the New York City Mayor's Liberty Medal.

Lee Strasberg Founded The Group Theatre with Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford in 1931, and shaped and molded the actors into America’s finest acting ensemble. He directed several of their notable productions including The House of Connelly, Success Story, Men in White, as well as the Theatre Guild’s production of The Fifth Column. Beginning as an actor, he appeared in early Theatre Guild productions, studying with Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Bolaslavsky at the American Laboratory Theatre. Mr. Strasberg’s directing on Broadway includes Odets’ Clash by Night, Peer Gynt, The Big Knife, and The Three Sisters. In 1948, he joined The Actors Studio and became one of its most influential teachers of “The Method.” He founded The Lee Strasberg Institutes in New York City and Hollywood. He authored many essays on acting and wrote “A Dream of Passion.”

Sandy Meisner A founding member of The Group Theatre, he appeared in the original productions of Awake and Sing, Paradise Lost, Golden Boy, Johnny Johnson, and many other Group productions. Mr. Meisner appeared in several films in Hollywood before returning to New York City. As Head of the Acting Department for over 40 years at The Neighborhood Playhouse, he became one of America’s most influential acting teachers. He co-directed the first performance of Odets’ Waiting for Lefty, as well as many productions at The Neighborhood Playhouse.

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Lee Grant Actress and renowned filmmaker, Ms. Grant received enormous praise early in her career for her role on Broadway in Detective Story. Her many films include the movie version of Detective Story (Oscar nom., Cannes Film Festival Award), Shampoo (for which she received the Oscar), Middle of the Night, Terror in the City, In the Heat of the Night, Valley of the Dolls, The Landlord (Oscar nom.), Voyage of the Damned (Oscar nom.), Marooned, Plaza Suite,, Airport ’77, The Substance of Fire, Dr. T & The Women, Mulholland Drive, and Going Shopping. She has directed several documentary films including Down and Out in America (Oscar), and a series of Intimate Portraits for Lifetime Television.

Robert X. Modica has been teaching in his Carnegie Hall studio in New York City since 1966. After serving in the Marine Corps in the Korean War, he studied privately with Sanford Meisner, and then co-taught with him at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He is one of the few teachers teaching today that was chosen by Meisner to carry on his work. Mr. Modica has worked as an actor in film, television and theatre. In his over 40 years of teaching, he has inspired countless actors, including John Turturro, Louise Lasser, Tyne Daly, Scott Cohen and David Duchovny.

Robert Patterson worked as an actor from the mid ‘60’s into the early 70’s at many of the major repertory theaters across the United States, as well as on Broadway and Off-Broadway, The Public and American Place Theater. In the late ‘60’s he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to study theater in Russia. He has been training actors in a 28 month program at the Robert Patterson Studio since 1973. Among the graduates are JoBeth Williams, Ted Danson, Sonia Manzano and David Haskell.

George C. White is the Founder and President of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Located on a 90-acre estate overlooking Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut, the Center was founded in 1964 to foster the growth of theater in America through the development of new writing and training of theater people. The Center hosts The National Playwrights Conference, The National Critics Institute, The National Music Theater Conference, Monte Cristo Cottage, The National Puppetry Conference, and the Cabaret Symposium. He began his career in theater at the age of 19 managing the International Ballet Festival in Nervi, Italy. From 1978 to 1992, he co chaired the Theater Management Program at the Yale School of Drama. He is founding chairman of the Sundance Institute and a board member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Arts and Business Council, New Dramatists, and the International Theater Institute. He has served as a commissioner for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts for 14 years. He received a presidential appointment as a member of the National Council on the Arts and currently. Mr. White has directed numerous off-Broadway, regional, and international theater productions.

Olympia Dukakis appeared on Broadway in Who’s Who in Hell, Social Security, Rose and has received an Obie, Drama Desk, LA Drama Critics Circle Award and a Golden Globe. She has starred in such films as Steel Magnolias, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Jane Austin’s Mafia!, The Thing About My Folks, and Moonstruck, for which she received a BAFTA Award, and the Oscar. She also played the role of Anna Madrigal in the Tales of the City mini series (Emmy nom.), and was nominated for the Canadian Academy Award for the Event. She provided the voice of Grandpa's love interest on The Simpsons. In 2003, Dukakis published her national bestselling autobiography, “Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress.” Her recent films include 3 Needles, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines, In the Land of Women, and Away From Her. She was a founding member and artistic director of The Whole Theater Company in Montclair, NJ,She recently directed the world premiere production of Todd Logan's Botanic Garden at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. This year, she starred in The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore; co-adapted and starred in the world-premiere of Another Side of the Island, based on The Tempest, at Alpine Theatre Project. She also recently starred in and executive-produced the upcoming Montana Amazon, co-starring Haley Joel Osment. Mr. Dukakis has taught at New York University, Yale University and given acting workshops at many universities and acting schools.

Marian Seldes One of our most illustrious actresses, Ms. Seldes’ career spans six decades, including being elected to the American Theatre of Fame. She made her Broadway theater debut in 1948 in a production of Medea with Judith Anderson. Her many Broadway and Off-Broadway appearances include Tower Beyond Tragedy, Ondine, Crime & Punishment, The Chalk Garden, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Tiny Alice, Father’s Day, A Delicate Balance, Equus, Deathtrap, Ivanov, 45 Seconds from Broadway, Dinner at Eight, and Deuce. From 1967 to 1991, Ms. Seldes was a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Drama, and in 2002 began teaching at Fordham University. Her films include The Light in the Forest, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Tom and Huck, Affliction, Home Alone 3, Duets, Mona Lisa Smile, August Rush, and Leatherheads. She began acting in television in 1952 in a Hallmark Hall of Fame production that marked the first of many guest star roles. Ms. Seldes’ 1,809 Broadway appearances in Deathtrap earned her a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ellen Adler Executive Chair of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Ms. Adler is the granddaughter of the great Yiddish actor, Jacob Adler. An accomplished painter, her artwork is found in many collections around the world. She wrote the foreword to “Acting With Adler” by Joanna Rotté; and shares her unique perspective on The Group Theatre; her mother, Stella Adler; and the Stella Adler Technique of Acting at many forums.

André De Shields Actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, and Adjunct Professor at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Mr. De Shields created the role of The Wiz in the original production on Broadway. His other Broadway appearances include Ain't Misbehavin' (Drama Desk Award nominee), the Duke Ellington revue Play On! (Tony, Drama Desk Award nominee), The Full Monty (Tony, Drama Desk Award nominee, and Outer Critics Circle Award), and Prymate (Drama Desk Award nominee). He also conceived, wrote, directed, and starred in André De Shield's Haarlem Nocturne. Mr. De Shield's regional theatre include Play On!, The Full Monty, Waiting For Godot, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Death of a Salesman, and Dusyanta: A Tale of Kalidasa. His television work includes Another World, Cosby, Sex and the City, Great Performances, and Law & Order. He won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Achievement for his performance in the 1982 NBC broadcast of Ain't Misbehavin'. He received the 2007 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance

Arthur Storch has acted, directed, produced, and taught in a career spanning forty-five years. He has directed Al Pacino in The Local Stigmatic, John Savage in Of Mice and Men, Geraldine Page in Clarence, Alvin Ailey in Talking to You, Shelley Winters in Under the Weather, Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach in The Typist and the Tiger, Hume Cronyn in Promenade All, Joanne Woodward in Hay Fever, Jack Lemmon in Tribute, Alan Alda in The Owl and the Pussycat, Alan King in The Impossible Years, and a national tour with Rudolph Nureyev in The King and I. In 1974, Mr. Storch founded Syracuse Stage where, as Producing Artistic Director, he directed thirty plays ranging from Shakespeare to Beckett and supervised the production of more than 100 others. During the same period (’74-‘92), he was Chairman of Syracuse University’s Drama Department. He left Syracuse in 1992 with the Mayor’s Achievement Award and the Arthur Storch Theatre named in his honor.

Penny Templeton Ms. Templeton 's artistry is the culmination of four generations of theatre actresses. Although Penny was warned by her family not to go on the stage, she embraced her legacy and began performing and studying under such masters as Paul Sorvino and Wynn Handman. Highlights of her career include starring in Joyce Carol Oates' I Stand Before You Naked at the American Place Theatre, and as Paul Sorvino's wife in All The King's Men. Her unique coaching methods and techniques have garnered attention and recognition from industry peers. She is currently writing her book, “Acting Under Fire: Creating Acting Lions.” Ms. Templeton taught at Columbia University, and has been a finalist Judge for the NY Film Festival, Daytime Emmys, and Cable Ace Awards. She is featured in “Acting Teachers of America,” and Glenn Alterman 's “Promoting Your Acting Career.”

Loyd Williamson is the creator and author of The Williamson Technique, a two-year system of training for the body, and its role in the communication process. He worked with Anna Sokolow for 13 years, appearing on Broadway in I'Historie du Soldat. He considers her his mentor. In 1975 he founded, The Actors Movement Studio, in partnership with Philip Burton, the purpose of which was to train actors in The Williamson work and in Burton's mime technique. Mr. Williamson served as artistic director until his retirement in 2002. In 1979, at the invitation of William Esper and Dean Jack Bettenbender, he joined the faculty of the newly formed Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, remaining its principal professor of the actors physical training for 22 years. In 1995, he created the Tamarack Lodge Retreat Center, an environment in which Williamson teaches the fundamentals of his technique as well as conduct teacher certification courses. The Lodge has hosted some 50 retreats in its first ten years. It has also been host to other training: Kristen Linklater's Teacher Certification Program; Lenard Petit's Michael Checkov Workshop; Michell Karp's retreats for Corporate Trainers. He spent eleven years on the faculty of the HB Studio (Herbert Bergoff) in New York, beginning his work there as an assistant to Anna Sokolow*, his mentor. For three years, he was the guest teacher at the graduate school of the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University. He also has taught at The Juilliard School of Drama, Northern Illinois University, Ensemble Studio Theater, and Pearl Theater Company, Princeton Shakespeare, and others.

Christopher Roberts A New York based actor and director started his journey in the world of theatre twenty years ago. His training began in small community based theatres in Brooklyn New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from the University of Buffalo, and attended Brooklyn College to pursue his Masters of Fine Arts in Acting. After several years working as a Professional Actor and Master Teaching Artist at the Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Samuel Beckett Theatre, and Henry Street Theatre, he did his post-graduate work at The School at Steppenwolf’s Acting Program. He created Steppingstone Theatre Company (SSTC), a theatre company dedicated to the ensemble and the unearthing of new and old stories to tell.

Ron Burrus Five years into building a career as an actor, Mr. Burrus was selected by his former teacher, Stella Adler, to apprentice under her at the NY studio to teach realistic acting technique classes and pass on the tradition of modern acting she herself had learned from Konstantin Stanislavski. Their teaching relationship in the classroom training actors lasted for ten years, from 1973 - 1983. Ms. Adler taught many actors, but very few teachers. Aside from Mr. Burrus, only Elizabeth Parrish, who currently teaches at the NY studio, are honored to be able to pass on to the present generation of actors the depth of the Adler tradition. In 1984, the Ron Burrus Studio was opened to train film actors in Los Angeles and in the summer of 2007 merged with Stella Adler Academy to continue on the tradition of teaching. Mr. Burrus teaches classes and coaches in NYC during the Fall and the remainder of the time is in Los Angeles. He is currently writing a book on acting.

Elizabeth Parrish A Master Teacher at the Stella Adler Conservatory, she appeared on Broadway in La Cage Aux Folles, and Death Trap. Off Broadway she was seen in Little Mary Sunshine, and Riverwind. Ms. Parrish has appeared at stock and regional theaters including the Ogunquit and Cape Playhouses, American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre. Major roles include Mrs. Malaprop, Lady Macbeth, and Maddy Rooney in All That Fall. Ms. Parrish has worked in film, television, and written and performed solo cabaret performances. She has taught at Circle in the Square, High School of Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera Studio, Yale Drama School (Associate Professor Adjunct), American Academy of Dramatic Art, and at the Eugene O'Neill International Theatre Institute.

Kristin Linklater trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The legendary Iris Warren was her voice teacher. Ms. Warren developed her own unique approach to training actors’ voices: from inside out rather than outside in. She said: “I want to hear the person, not the voice.” Ms. Linklater taught six years at LAMDA. In 1963 she came to the United States and set up her private studio. Between 1964 and 1978, she was vocal coach at Stratford, Ontario, the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, the first Lincoln Center Repertory Company, the Open Theater, the Negro Ensemble, the Manhattan Project. She was Master Teacher of Voice in the New York University Graduate Theatre Program (now the Tisch School of the Arts) from 1965 to 1978. In 1978 she co-founded, with Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company, in Lenox, Massachusetts. She taught at Emerson College, and in Boston, created and co-directed with Carol Gilligan, the Company of Women, an all-female Shakespeare company, producing two all-women plays: Henry V and King Lear. In 1997 she became a Professor of Theatre Arts at Columbia University. Her roles as an actress include King Lear, Lady Macbeth, Maria, Queen Margaret, Emilia, and most recently Hecuba. She has given workshops in the U.S., the UK, Europe, Russia, and has trained teachers in her methods who teach in a majority of the actor-training programs in America, Australia, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Spain and Russia. Ms. Linklater wrote “Freeing the Natural Voice,” and “Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice.”

Sande Shurin has coached and directed many notable actors for film, Broadway and television including Anthony Rapp, Matthew Modine, Daphne Rubin Vega, Ty Treadway, Casey Nicholaw, and Adam Pascal. Ms. Shurin authored the book “Transformational Acting: A Step Beyond.” She currently teaches in New York City and Woodstock, NY. Ms. Shurin directed The Price Of Genius on Broadway, Sada, and Sylvia Miles at the Sande Shurin Theatre, The Insect Comedy (Central Arts Theatre), Beautiful (Lincoln Centre Festival), The Dolphin Dreamer (BAM), Cabin Fever (WPA Theatre, Anniversary Story (ASPA Theatre), and Sophocles (Theatre for the New City), among others. Her theatre company, “Drifting Traffic,” was a founding member of the Off-Off-Broadway movement, and she directed the original plays by Leonard Melfi. Ms. Shurin directed True Love, Bruce Levy’s new film, shown at the Woodstock Film Festival, Miami Short Film Festival, and New York Film & Video Festival. She just completed directing a new film, Museum Scandals, shown at Tribeca Cinema as part of The Big Apple Film Festival & at Ruff Cutz in Boston. Her TV directing includes the cable series, Working Actors. Ms. Shurin’s work was seen on Oprah. She is also the acting coach to her student Robert Margolis' indie film The Definition of Insanity. She has taught at Marymount College, Adelphi College and CUNY, and made her Carnegie Hall debut directing operatic singer Katia Paschou. Ms. Shurin is in pre-production for the film, My Fabulous Felon.

Ronald Rand Internationally-acclaimed actor and playwright, he authored the best-selling “Acting Teachers of America,” (with photographs by Luigi Scorcia). He currently tours around the world (8th year) in his play, Let It Be Art!: Harold Clurman’s Life of Passion, and had had two critically-acclaimed runs Off-Broadway at The Century Center, and The ArcLight Theatre, presented by The Mirror Theatre. Mr. Rand performed Let it be Art! at The Kafka Theatre in Buenos Aires; MerCoSur Althuapua Int’l Festival-Paysundu, Uruguay; Filmoteque Theatre, Paris; Int’l Festival of Making Theatre, Athens; First Harold Clurman Festival, NYC; GIFT Int’l Festival, Tbilisi; Last Frontier Theatre Conference; Tucson’s Invisible Theatre, and has taught at over thirty universities across America and around the world. Upcoming: London, in Turkey at the Anadulo University, Zagreb’s Academy of Dramatic Art, Rome, Barcelona, and another South American tour. In New York City, Mr. Rand appeared opposite Elizabeth Ashley, Rosemary Harris, Jayne Atkinson, and Marian Seldes at The Jewish Museum; in Servant of Two Masters, directed by Stuart Vaughan; at BAM in Julius Caesar; Endgame, directed by Joseph Chaikin; and in Perfect Crime.” Film and TV includes "When in Rome" opposite Anjelica Huston; "The Taking of Pelham, 1:23”; Emperor’s Club; In & Out; Quiz Show; Law & Order; Homeless with Yoko Ono; and A Marriage – O’Keefe and Steiglitz on American Playhouse. His mentors include Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Jerzy Grotowski, Bobby Lewis, and Joseph Chaikin. He is collaborating with Joan Micklin Silver, adapting his play, The Group, about the famed Group Theatre, into a major motion picture, and just completed a new play, “a River, a Seed, a Lamp, a Cloud, the Wind.” Founder & Publisher of “The Soul of the American Actor” newspaper, he is an Adjunct Professor at Pace University, and a member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit.

Maggie Flanigan has been teaching professional acting classes in New York City for over 25 years and is the Artistic Director and Master Teacher of the Maggie Flanigan Studio. Ms. Flanigan trained as an actor and teacher of the Meisner work with William Esper and served, with particular distinction, on the faculty of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Professional Actor Training Program (Rutgers University) for 18 years. She established the Maggie Flanigan Studio in a conservatory-based program. Maggie shares top honors for “Best Acting Teacher” in New York City 2006 and 2008, and “Best Acting Coach” 2008 (Back Stage Readership Poll). Ms. Flanigan is currently working on a manual based on her writings and teaching experience.

Sherry Eaker Since 1977, Ms. Eaker has been the editor of “Back Stage,” and is currently Editor at Large. She has compiled and edited four editions of the “Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists,” and compiled and edited the “Cabaret Artists Handbook,” both published by Back Stage Books. Ms. Eaker serves on the executive committee of the American Theatre Critics Association, she is a special advisor to the NY Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media and the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, and serves on the boards of the NY Musical Theatre Festival and the National Theatre Conference. She is also a member of the Drama Desk, the League of Professional Theatre Women, and NY Women in Film & TV. Ms. Eaker produces the annual “Back Stage Bistro Awards Show,” now in its 25th year, and frequently produces and moderates panel discussions, and lectures on the “business” of the business.

Alice Spivak began her career at an early age, joining Actors’ Equity in 1956, Screen Actors Guild in ‘59, and AFTRA in the early 60’s. Having trained at the HB Studio with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, she was made a teacher there in 1962, and taught on their faculty for fifteen years. She has been an acting teacher and acting coach, teaching advanced classes in NYC, and coached on numerous feature films, Broadway shows, regional shows, TV mini-series, pilots. She also taught Film Directing Workshops and was given the Indie Award by The Association of Video and Filmmakers in 1977. In 1981, she was on the faculty of NYU Film Graduate School, and Columbia Film Graduate School. She is co-writer and director of a short film comedy, Working For Peanuts. Ms. Spivak recently completed a screenplay, No Right Turn. As an actress, she has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theatre (receiving the Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago in 1975 for Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite). She appeared Off-Broadway in Ossie Davis’ play, Last Dance for Sybil. Her film and TV work includes Law & Order; Sex & the City; Law & Order CI; 100 Centre Street; as Jenny in Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege; and as Louise in Roy Arundhati’s An Electric Moon, directed by Pradip Krishen, filmed in India.

John Strasberg An international career of 45 years in the theater. Actor – theater, film, and television: includes Mound Builders, The Rose Tattoo, Butterflies Are Free, Actors Studio Theater. Director, Designer, Master Teacher in New York: Mirror Repertory Company with Geraldine Page, John Strasberg’s The Real Stage, and currently John Strasberg Studios and the Accidental Repertory Theater; Paris: John Strasberg Studios, Atelier; and in Montreal, Spain, Italy, Norway, Germany, Argentina, and Peru. Author of “Accidentally On Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting, and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity,” and “The Shooting Party.” He has also been a producer, designer, critic. An award-winning documentary of his teaching was produced, Organic Creative Process - Accidentally On Purpose. Mr. Strasberg has directed award-winning productions by Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Ibsen, O’Neill, Lope de Vega, Clifford Odets, Kaufmann and Hart, Arniches, Guimera, Pirandello, and Beckett, including: Richard III, Ghosts, Beast and Virtue, The Senorita de Treveles, Happy Days, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Paradise Lost, Alice in Wonderland, and Don Juan Tenorio.

Barbara MacKenzie-Wood began her career acting opposite Raul Julia in the title role in The Hide And Seek Odyssey Of Madeline Gimple, directed by Lloyd Richards, at the Eugene O'Neill Center. Over the course of her professional life, she has worked with many leading directors, including Joanne Akalitis, Paul Sills, Jacques Levy, and Jacques Lecoq. A member of the acting company at the Long Wharf Theatre for over five seasons; she also appeared in How To Make A Woman at the International Theatre Festival in Wroclav, Poland; and has appeared in stock; regional theatre; and Off- Broadway. In 1983, Ms. MacKenzie Wood co-founded the Irondale Ensemble Project, one of America's leading experimental theatre companies, and continues to act, direct, and teach for the company. She most recently staged Tom Stoppard's Travesties. She performed in Irondale's Grand Jury Prize winning production of You Can't Win at the International Drama Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ms. MacKenzie-Wood has been a member of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama faculty since 1986 and has been honored with the Hornbostel Award, given for teaching excellence in the College of Fine Arts. She headed up the Across the Pond project, a joint venture between C.M.U. theatre students and their counterparts at Queen Margaret's University in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has taught at Cornell, Brown, Harvard, Bennington and the University of Massachusetts and for two years was the principal acting teacher for the Berkshire Theatre Festival. She has written for “Theatre Three” and “The Drama Review” and is the author of “The Drama Game Guide: Experimental Strategies for the Classroom.” In 2004, Ms. MacKenzie-Wood traveled to South Africa for three weeks when she was asked to create and lead the initial theatre program for World Camps, an international organization assisting African children affected by AIDS.

Erwin “Bud” Beyer received his B.S. from Northwestern and has studied acting with Alvina Krause and mime with Etienne DeCroux. He was head of the Acting Program from 1972, when he joined the faculty, until 1989 when he was chosen to chair the Department of Theatre. He stepped down as chair in 2002. He is the founder and director of the Northwestern University Mime Company, which has toured throughout the United States and Europe. Professor Beyer has taught intensive scene study summer workshops for professional actors in both New York and Los Angeles. During the past 25 years, Professor Beyer has been presenting lectures and workshops on gesture and movement for orchestral and band conductors throughout the country. Prior to joining Northwestern University in 1972, he held positions as Artist in Residence at Loyola University, Head of the Theatre School at St. Alban's Repertory Theatre in Washington, and Coordinator of the Drama Department for Operation Area Arts, Green Bay. He has conducted workshops in mime and acting for colleges, universities and festivals across the United States. He wrote “Speaking of Theatre” with Charlotte Lee.

Eric Morris began his involvement in theater at Northwestern University, where he graduated with a degree in Dramatic Arts. His acting career of over one hundred Equity plays, twenty major motion pictures, fifty network television episodes, and running roles on two syndicated TV series led him on a search for new and workable acting techniques. Mr. Morris' techniques are rooted in the Method, yet they distinctly represent his own approach, placing him among the most recognized acting coaches in the country. His books include “No Acting Please,” “Being & Doing,” “Irreverent Acting,” “Acting From the Ultimate Consciousness,” and “Acting, Imaging & The Unconscious.” His newest book is “The Diary of A Professional Experiencer (An Autobiographical Journey into the Evolution of an Acting System).”

Joanna Rotté is a writer, teacher, director and actor. Her books include “Scene Change: A Theatre Diary: Prague, Moscow, Leningrad” and “Acting with Adler.” As Professor of Theatre in the graduate program of Villanova University, Ms. Rotté specializes in teaching Script Analysis and Scene Study. She regularly directs and performs in Villanova’s main stage repertory theatre, most recently as Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. She has directed featured productions for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, including her own plays, Art Talk and Prajna (based on a script by the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche). She is a yoga instructor and a practitioner of Zen mediation. Her comments on acting are published regularly in “The Soul of the American Actor” newspaper and are available at: www.homepage.villanova.edu/joanna.rotte.

Julie Garfield, an accomplished actress on stage, screen and television, graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse where she studied with Sanford Meisner and William Esper. She has also studied with Robert Lewis, Stella Adler and is a member of the Actor's Studio where she worked with Lee Strasberg. Ms. Garfield began teaching in 1984 at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. She won the Theatre World Award for her performance as Sonya in Uncle Vanya at the Roundabout Theatre. Ms. Garfield has performed many of the great roles in the theatre and has worked with some of our most notable actors and directors including Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Elaine May, Marian Seldes, and George C. Scott. She is proud to be the daughter of John Garfield.

Kathryn Gately has been involved in the inception of three distinct actor training programs and in the development of those programs into highly successful and well respected entities with national reputations. Currently, she serves as head of an MFA URTA/NAST acting program at NIU, and director of an international student production program in Dublin, Ireland. She studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and has taught extensively in America and in Ireland at the Abbey Theatre and the Gaiety School. She co-founded the Gately/Poole Studio on Theatre Row in New York City, which grew into one of the country’s leading conservatory training programs. During the summers she teaches or coaches stage, film, and television acting in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and Chicago. Recently Ms. Gately coached the world premiers of Sins of the Father in Chicago and Dublin, and served as an artistic advisor to producer Kevin Goetz for the film, Wild Iris, starring Gena Rowlands and Laura Linney. This past spring, she coached NIU’s production of The Birds, which performed in Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre School. Ms. Gately has been on the board of directors and headed the undergraduate division of the Illinois Theatre Association. She has coached extensively for film, television, and Broadway.

Gregory Abels Currently Guest Master Teacher of Scene Study at Circle in the Square Theatre School. Formerly Master Teacher of Acting on the faculties of NYU, Stella Adler Conservatory, National Theatre Institute at the O’Neill Theatre Center, National Shakespeare Conservatory, Warsaw State Academy, National Academy of Prague. Has also taught widely on Shakespeare performance and voice production & speech. For nine years, ran his own Manhattan conservatory, GATE(Gregory Abels Training Conservatory), where he directed productions of the work of Euripides, Marivaux, Pinter, Churchill, Fornes and Lawrence Carr. Has been mentor to many young actors and a popular mainstay of New York Theatre for 45 years, doing what he loves. His 2001 production of LET IT BE ART! The Life and Passion of Harold Clurman, written by and staring Ronald Rand, continues to be performed throughout the U.S. and around the world. Mr. Abels is a Zen Buddhist Master in the Lineage of the White Plum.

Susan Grace Cohen A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Cohen is currently a faculty member at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Film and TV Division. For seven years, she owned and operated a private acting studio in New York City. Ms. Cohen coaches principals for Broadway and Off’-Broadway, Film and Television. She is author of “Bridging The Gap,” “Student to Professional Actor,” and is a contributing essayist to “The Soul of the American Actor.” Recently, Ms. Cohen received the James L. Hearst Guest Lecturer Award in the Arts and Humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. She has lead workshops with Pace University, Miami Dade Community College and The Bank Street College of Education. Ms. Cohen’s former students include James Gandolfini, Linda Hamilton, Karen Allen, James Spader, Melora Walters, Mel Harris, Justin Chambers, and Heather Juergensen. Ms. Cohen has been a faculty member at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for twenty years.

William Esper has been teaching acting in New York for over forty years. A graduate of Western Reserve University and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater where he trained as an actor with Sanford Meisner, with whom he subsequently worked in close association as a teacher and director for 15 years. Mr. Esper was on the staff of the Playhouse for 12 years. From 1973-1976 he was Associate Director of the Playhouse Acting Department. In 1977 Mr. Esper founded the MFA and BFA Professional Actor Training Programs at Rutgers University, where he remained as Program Head until 2003. In 2006 he was voted “New York’s Best Acting Teacher” by the readers of “Back Stage” newspaper. He has been a Guest Artist/Teacher at Canada’s Banff Festival of the Arts, the National Theater School of Canada, Vancouver’s Workshop for the Performing Arts, Chicago’s St. Nicholas Theater Company, and Munich’s Schauspiel München. Mr. Esper has directed both Off-Broadway and regionally and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City. The professional actors Mr. Esper has worked with include: Kim Bassinger, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Beals, Kristin Davis, Aaron Eckhart, Calista Flockhart, Jeff Goldblum, Dule Hill, William Hurt, Christine Lahti, John Malkovich, David Morse, Tonya Pinkins, Sam Rockwell, and Paul Sorvino. In 1965, he established the William Esper Studio where he continues to teach today.

Co-presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY and Ronald Rand The Soul of the American Actor, and in collaboration with Back Stage. This event is free and open to the public.

2:00 p.m. + 6:30 p.m., Monday, December 8, 2008 Proshansky Auditorium. Free!

Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century
A Symposium and Concert with Yale Strom, Matt Haimovitz and others

Please join us for a symposium and concert featuring distinguished Klezmer performers, scholars, composers and cultural mediators.

The afternoon symposium at 3:00 p.m. will explore the current state of Klezmer music and its implications for the 21st century. Moderated by Jewish music specialist, Dr. Marsha Dubrow, a Resident Scholar of the CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Jewish Studies, and featuring panelists Yale Strom, Joel Rubin, Eve Sicular and Stephen Dankner, among others, this eclectic conversation promises to stimulate rich discussion about Klezmer as a world music genre with a long history and an evolving future.

The evening concert at 7:00 p.m. will feature a performance of traditional Klezmer music by renowned Klezmer performing artist and author Yale Strom and his band Hot Pstromi. Acclaimed cellist, Matt Haimovitz, will perform composer Stephen Dankner's Klezmer Fantasy accompanied by pianist Geoffrey Burlson, faculty member at Hunter College, CUNY and Princeton University.

Matt Haimovitz is a musical pioneer who has inspired classical music lovers and won over countless new listeners to the genre by bringing his artistry to concert halls and clubs, outdoor festivals and intimate coffee houses. Through his visionary approach, Haimovitz champions new music and initiates groundbreaking collaborations with and beyond the classical domain.

Yale Strom is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities. From more than two decades and 70 research expeditions, Strom has become one of the world's leading ethnographer artist of Klezmer music and history.

Beyond Boundaries: Klezmer Music in the 21st Century has been created and will be co-produced and co-presented by the Center for Jewish Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY, with input from Yale Strom and other participants.

Symposium at 3:00 p.m., Concert at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 16, 2008, Proshansky Auditorium. Free!

75 Year Celebration of Virgil Thomson’s + Gertrude Stein’s
Four Saints in Three Acts

Join us to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Broadway premiere of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts. After premiering February 7, 1934 at the Wadsworth Antheneum in Hartford, the opera debuted at New York’s 44th Street Theatre on February 20th, 1934.

Focusing on two 16th-century Spanish saints, Four Saints in Three Acts defied conventions of traditional opera. Stein's libretto highlights a landscape of lan guage, rather than a usual narrative, while Thomson's music was unconven tional in its day for its tonality. Also considered unusual was the portrayal of European saints by an all-black cast, for which there was no precedent in American history.

Except for possibly Robert Wilson’s and Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach (1976), Four Saints in Three Acts holds a unique place in the American avant-garde opera of the 20th century. Presented in collaboration with poet and librettist Karren Alenier and Nancy Rhodes, Artistic Director, Encompass New Opera Theatre, New York, Four Saints in Three Acts will be honored in a day long event by leading scholars and practitioners in the field of avant-garde literature and performance. Stein memorabilia from the collection of Hans Gallas will be on exhibition.

Starting at 2:00 p.m., the afternoon will feature the collaboration between Stein and Thomson. A screening of Steven Watson’s documentary Prepare for Saints, with an introduction by Watson, will be followed by talks and discus sions with Alenier, Rhodes, Watson, composer Scott Wheeler, and American art historian Wanda M. Corn.

Starting at 6:30 p.m., the evening will open with a 30-minute live excerpt of Four Saints in Three Acts, directed by Nancy Rhodes, with the Encompass New Opera Theatre, using a new edition of the score by Charles Fussell and the late Wiley Hitchcock. A moderated discussion with Charles Fussell, Nancy Rhodes, and others will follow the performance.

Encompass New Opera Theatre, established in 1975, made its inaugural production with Stein’s and Thomson's The Mother of Us All, directed by Rhodes, who was mentored by Thomson. Thomson was one of the theatre's founding board members, and Rhodes, its founding artistic director.

Tuesday, February 20, 2009 Elebash Recital Hall. First come, first served. Free!